(Bloomberg) -- “Competition is for losers.”That’s Peter Thiel talking, again and again, about his big rule for success. Read more: Clarium hedge fund shrinks 90% as Thiel has third losing yearBut in 2010 returns declined about 23%, its third-straight year of losses, as the economy recovered and oil slumped. Clarium’s assets fell and Thiel ended up converting the fund into a private investment vehicle for primarily himself. “His principal failure was wanting to be proven right intellectually,” said Simon Kerr, publisher of industry newsletter Hedge Fund Insight. That holding would today be worth $12.3 billion had Thiel, a board member, not sold more than a third of it in the IPO.
